For both the colonists and the Algonquin tribes, this was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. This full Moon was also called the Frost Moon.

Tides

High: 9:08am/11:14pm

Low: 3:17am/4:15pm

Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)

This Year:4.08

Last Year:3.20

Normal To Date:4.16

Annual Seasonal Average:23.80

Holidays

National Bavarian Cream Pie Day

National Flag Day-Sri Lanka

On This Day In …

1779 --- The College of Pennsylvania became the University of Pennsylvania. It was the first legally recognized university in America.

1826 --- John Walker invented the friction match (strike anywhere).

1839 --- The American Statistical Association was founded in Boston.

1868 --- Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle. Sheridan determined that a campaign in winter might prove more effective, since the Indians could be caught off guard while in their permanent camps. On November 26, Custer located a large village of Cheyenne encamped near the Washita River, just outside of present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma. Custer did not attempt to identify which group of Cheyenne was in the village, or to make even a cursory reconnaissance of the situation. Had he done so, Custer would have discovered that they were peaceful people and the village was on reservation soil, where the commander of Fort Cobb had guaranteed them safety. There was even a white flag flying from one of the main dwellings, indicating that the tribe was actively avoiding conflict. Having surrounded the village the night before, at dawn Custer called for the regimental band to play "Garry Owen," which signaled for four columns of soldiers to charge into the sleeping village. Outnumbered and caught unaware, scores of Cheyenne were killed in the first 15 minutes of the "battle," though a small number of the warriors managed to escape to the trees and return fire. Within a few hours, the village was destroyed--the soldiers had killed 103 Cheyenne, including the peaceful Black Kettle and many women and children.

1889 --- Curtis P. Brady was issued the first permit to drive an automobile through Central Park in New York City. Mr. Brady had to pledge to New York’s finest that he would not frighten the horses in the park.

1910 --- The largest railway station in the world opened to traffic. Pennsylvania Station, more fondly known as Penn Station, was one of the first grand buildings of the 20th century. The building covered 28 acres of mid-Manhattan. This cathedral-like structure of steel, glass and Italian marble saw hundreds of thousands of souls pass through its grandiose concourse, stand at ticket counters and step to the platforms to make the commute home, or board trains to points north, south and west of New York City. Multitudes walked through its doors just to people-watch, or fantasize as they heard the whistle blow and the call, “All aboard.” This was no ordinary building ... what stories it could tell! As the decades passed, Penn Station remained a palace among New York’s famous skyscrapers for more than half a century. It is said that all good things must come to an end. Penn Station met its demise almost 53 years to the day it opened as crews began demolishing it on October 28, 1963. The building was torn down to make way for a new Madison Square Garden, although the trains continue to run beneath it. Gone was the grandeur of another time.

1924 --- The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was originally called a Christmas Parade.

1945 --- C.A.R.E. (Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere) was founded this day, as 22 American organizations formed a cooperative to rush lifesaving CARE packages to survivors of World War II.

1963 --- U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress.

1978 --- Former Board of Supervisors member Dan White murders Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk at City Hall. White, who entered San Francisco's government offices with a .38 revolver, had reportedly been angry about Moscone's decision not to reappoint him to the city board. Firing upon the mayor first, White then reloaded his pistol and turned his gun on his rival Milk, who was one of the nation's first openly gay politicians and a much-admired activist in San Francisco. Future California Senator and then-Supervisor Dianne Feinstein, who was the first to find Milk's body, found herself addressing a stunned crowd at City Hall. "As president of the Board of Supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement: Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect is supervisor Dan White." White, who was caught soon after the murders, pleaded a "diminished capacity" defense, claiming that copious amounts of junk food, combined with distress over the loss of his job, caused him to suffer mental problems. The so-called "Twinkie Defense" appeared to be successful, and, in 1979, White was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. Public outrage was so widespread that California revoked the diminished capacity defense in subsequent cases. Following the murders, both riots and peaceful candlelight demonstrations took place as the city of San Francisco publicly mourned the loss of two of its most cherished and respected civic leaders.